'Robbed of future adventures': Family devastated after Raynham mom dies in childbirth
RAYNHAM — Shane Manozzi met his partner Laura Hill for the first time at an afterparty at a Phish concert in New York City in the summer of 2017.
He was from Westwood, Massachusetts, and she was from Exton, Pennsylvania, but they couldn't stay away from each other. Up until a few weeks ago, they were inseparable.
“Since that point, this is the longest I’ve been away from her,” Shane said.
On Dec. 5, Laura, 40, died suddenly while giving birth to their third child, Liana. Liana survived and is healthy. Their two other children are Luciano, 4 and Nico, 3.
In shock, searching for answers
Shane said the cause of Laura's death is not yet known and won’t be determined by the coroner 's office for some time. She was having a home birth at their house in Raynham when the tragedy happened.
Shane is still in shock, he said.
He said Laura was extremely proactive with her health, engaging in CrossFit and family walks regularly, as well as being focused on eating organically.
He is grief-stricken at the loss, he said.
“I was looking forward to growing old with her,” he said. “I can’t overstate how great a mother she was."
"She was beautiful inside and out.”
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Picking up the pieces
Shane has been a stay-at-home father the past three years while Laura was the main breadwinner, most recently working as an associate director project manager for PPD in Boston, a research firm for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries.
Shane said she worked from home a lot and looked for every opportunity to check in and spend time with their kids during the average work day.
Presently, Shane said he’s still processing the loss and hasn’t yet figured out or made decisions on what he’s going to do financially, such as returning to the workforce, and how his kids, especially newborn Liana, will be watched over.
“I am not 100% sure how I will afford it,” said Shane, also referring to the mortgage for their Raynham house.
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Outpouring of support
Laura's sister Kayla Hill and a longtime friend of Laura's have set up a GoFundMe to help the family through this terrible time.
“We can’t make sense of something so devastating, but want to support and help Shane and their children any way we can,” the GoFundMe says.
As of Thursday it had reached $61,565 out of a $75,000 goal, with 770 donations.
Laura Hill was full of life
Raised in the small town of Exton, Pennsylvania, Laura grew up with a strong work ethic, according to her obituary, which was written by her sister, Kayla.
Laura earned her degrees from Pennsylvania State University, where she earned a bachelor of science in biobehavioral health and health policy administration in 2005 and her MBA in biotechnology and health industry management in 2011.
She spent her entire professional career working for the medical research and pharmaceutical industries.
“She was very smart and well-respected,” Shane said.
Aside from collecting vinyl records and staying as physically active as she could, traveling was a favorite pastime of Laura’s, whether for work or for recreation with her family. Her favorite places to go involved “smelling, hearing, and seeing the ocean,” said her sister Kayla in the obituary.
Moving to Raynham
Shane and Laura made the distance factor work with their relationship, with either him driving to Philadelphia or her driving to Boston almost every weekend.
"We hated being apart," Shane said.
They traveled a lot together throughout 2018, including trips to Europe, before starting to live together in late 2018/early 2019.
Shane and Laura were living in Philadelphia when their second child, Nico, was born in 2020. After Nico’s birth, he and Laura decided they wanted to live closer to his family in Massachusetts.
“Homes here suited our family better,” he said.
He said they “cast a wide net” searching for “everywhere we could afford.” Ultimately, they decided on their home in Raynham because the neighborhood was “a nice area to raise our family,” while not being too far away from his family in the Westwood area.
Born to be a mother
Shane said being a mother was what Laura cared most about in the world, as evidenced by the amount of books she had and read on childcare, child education, giving birth, nurturing kids, holistic approaches to child development and other topics.
"Everything she read was about being a better mother,” he said.
Said Kayla in the obituary: “She was robbed of future adventures with her children that she had envisioned. While she is not here physically with us, we know she will always be with us. May she watch over us always.”
This article originally appeared on The Taunton Daily Gazette: Family devastated after Raynham mother Laura Hill dies in childbirth
